Blown Out Torch
by skybluebutterfly
Summary: One-shot. RikuxSora. Sequel to "Light Within the Shadows"; second of the "Life, Death, and Renewal" Trilogy. After a certain shadow's assignment, Riku tried everything in his power to find Sora, but even if he did, would Sora still trust him?


Blown Out Torch

Rating: R

Summery: Sequel to the "Light Within the Shadows." After a certain shadow's assignment, Riku tried everything in his power to find Sora, but even if he did, would Sora still trust him?

_Trying to save dying love is like trying to see with a blown out torch, there is no hope._

He was furious.

Heartless jumped up from practically every corner as he (or at least tried to) made his way through the castle floating in space that was often referred to as Hollow Bastion. It would have been more fun to play with them a little, but he was not in any mood to do so, for he was on a mission. A mission to find Sora.

Peeking through a door that supposedly led to one of the sleeping chambers, he found a corpse of something that once resembled a Heartless. If he had done some further inspections, he would have noticed the chain around its neck that once belonged to a certain brown-haired and blue-eyed boy, but he didn't, and therefore the chain remained unnoticed as he slipped back into the eerie hall.

Another batch of Heartless appeared before him, whom he recognized as Shadows, weak creatures they were but were one of the smartest type of Heartless that roamed between the worlds. In fact, if one knows their dialog, one can easily understand what they were talking about, most did not know that they pass gossip. '_Peculiar,_' he thought, '_There aren't many Shadows around Hollow Bastion, especially after Sora rescued Kairi¡K_' his mental voice died down as he thought of the boy, and the fact that his heart was contracting painfully in his chest was not helping, either.

"Do you think he broke that boy?" asked a Shadow in its squeaky voice.

'_What boy?_'

"I don't know," said another while it scrunched up its face, possibly thinking, "I hope not, he was rather cute when I saw him before-"

"I know, I know, especially with that Keyblade of his-"

'_The **Keyblade**?!_'

The Heartless's sentence was cut short when it felt a cool, _sharp,_ metal resting against its throat. The person holding the metal ¡Vor more specifically, a sword- tilted the weapon so the little Heartless's yellow eyes were forced to look into emerald ones. "Who is this boy you are talking about?" he asked coldly.

"T-The Keyblade Master, Riku-same!" squeaked the small creature.

His eyes narrowed, "Where is he?"

"The East Tower, Riku-sama!"

"And the room?"

"G-Gray, Sir!"

He was going to turn away when something else occurred to him, in a heart beat the blade was back against the creature's throat. "And the password?"

"I don't know, Sir!"

The glistening blade slide across the Shadow's neck, like a knife cur through butter, black blood oozed from the wound, then with a swirl of colors, the Shadow disappeared. The other Shadows whimpered.

Riku's gaze turned to the glob of darkness (the Shadows were all squeezed together), there was a furious glint within the emerald depths. "Password?"

All the Shadows whimpered, except one, who gathered enough courage to squeak out an "It's 'Broken Vase,' Riku-sama!" before huddled itself against the other Heartless.

Without even a backward glance, the boy with silver hair walked away as he made his way to the East Tower.

"Broken Vase."

The lock clicked and the door open by itself, revealing one of the best sleeping chambers of this world. Painting and sculptures filled the walls and the top of the tables and desks, a rug made of warm earthy colors covered the floor and in the middle of the room was a huge bed with velvet hanging down around it as curtains.

Broken sobs came from beneath the velvet hangings.

Gingerly, Riku made his way over to the source of the sad sound and pried apart the curtains with much care. The sight that greeted him was horrific even for him.

There laid a boy with chocolate-brown hair at the foot of the large bed, naked and curled up in a defensive ball, as broken sobs emitted from his slim throat. The sheets were wrinkled as they oddly curled around the boy ¡Vfrom physical struggle, no doubt¡V and dried blood, as well as other even less pleasant liquids stained the once creamy white fabric.

Stained the once innocent boy.

"...Sora," he began, the brunet's head snapped up as his voice, Riku saw the dried, as well as fresh, tear tracks, the place where his face had been hidden was wet with tears. As soon as the boy saw whom the speaker was, he whimpered in fear and tried to put as much distance between them as humanely possible. "Sora, what are you doing?"

"G-Get a-away fro-om me!" Sora's voice was cracked from crying so much and he was stammering as he continued to scramble away from the other teen.

Riku stayed where he was, but concern and fear were undeniably, steadily, engulfing him. _Why was Sora running away from him?_

"Why are you running away from me?"

Sora wouldn't answer but the horror resided in his sapphire-blue orbs hadn't subsided one bit.

He sank to his knees into the soft mattress and turned his head slightly away from the boy. It was worse than he thought.

_He was awoken from his peaceful slumber next to his boyfriend when he felt a strange cold feeling at his side, where Sora was supposed to be. He blinked sleepily, turned to the brunet's direction for another round of 'Sora watching,' something he had been doing often lately. And gasped._

_Darkness engulfed the boy's side of the bed and all that was on it, including the sleeping boy himself, right above the boy's sleeping figure was another figure dressed completely in black. Riku's and the figure's eyes connected for one millisecond, emerald met topaz, before the figure, the darkness, and Sora disappeared all together. _

_"Sora? Sora? SORA!!" _

The young warrior was trembling now, as more tear drops made their ways down his porcelain cheeks and he regarded his childhood friend with fearful eyes.

"What did it do to you, Sora? Why are you so afraid of me?"

"Y-You do-o k-know¡K" It was not a simply task to decipher what exactly the Keyblade Master was speaking of since he practically hiccupped every other syllable.

"No, I don't, Sora! What did it do to you?"

"I-It?!" the brunet choked as his voice rose in volume, "I-It was Y-YOU!"

"Me?"

The boy turned away, "Y-Yeah, you."

"But I didn't, I couldn't, I-" Realization stuck like lightning: the eyes, the darkness, the reaction, they all led to one conclusion...

'_That bastard morphed into me!_'

"It wasn't me, it was a Heartless! It morphed into me to trick you. It wasn't me, I swear, you must believe me!" He tried to reach for Sora, but the latter jerked away from his touch as if he was burned by it.

"Don't t-touch me!"

The boy with forest green eyes dropped his glove hand onto the mattress next to him. He had lost Sora's trust; this was the end. It was over. All over.

"So this is the end, huh?" he said in a whisper that was more to himself rather than to the boy cowering away from him. Then Riku raised his head, and questioned in a gentle tone, "...At least let me take you back to Traverse Town?"

Sora stayed where he was, not giving any sigh whatsoever, if not for the steady rise and falls of his chest, Riku couldn't even tell if he was alive or not.

"...Sora?"

The brunet remained motionless, still avoiding the other's eyes, after an uncomfortable silence for the both of them the boy with sea-blue orbs as eyes shook his head.

Riku's shoulders dropped in defeat and let out a tired sigh, he got up and saw the other boy flinched at his movement. "...I'll go now. Bye, Sora..." He made his way to the door, but hesitated. Whispering something, Riku exited the chamber, something that he really didn't expect Sora to hear, but felt as if he _had_ to at least voice it once in his presence.

But Sora had heard every word, clear as crystals dangling in front of one's face, and his sapphire eyes went wide.

Some said there were imaginary winds in the eerie halls of Hollow Bastion, carrying all the secrets that were said and those left unsaid. If what they said was true, then right at this moment the corridors of the castle would be echoing these three words:

_Ai Shiteru, Sora._

Owari

A/N: Did you like it? Hate it? Please tell me what do you think about this fic, both positive and negative comments are welcome, thank you!

SPECIAL NOTES CONCERNING "LIGHT WITHIN THE SHADOWS"

If you are looking for cannon interpretations of the game, then my fics (_all_ of my fics) are not for you. You see, I tend to add characters and/or change the cannon plot. A lot. Of course, they're not completely off, just slightly AU.

Also, I have to apologize to Lauraena -and others who thought the Heartless in _Light Within the Shadows_ was an actual character. He was just what he appeared to be, A HEARTLESS, NOTHING MORE. I had _tried_ to find a cannon villain suitable for the job; Ansem was the only qualified candidate. However, since he was obviously more powerful than Maleficent, there was _no way_ that he would do her dirty work, nor would she be able to execute him as I've set up in the story.

I apologize for the misunderstanding and/or disappointment. Sorry, minna!

PS. The serious is not over yet! I planned to do a trilogy for this, and I still do. I believe there will be a sequel to this, just wait for it, I'm sure I can come up with _something_.

PPS. I read some of my reviews and was utterly confused when more than one person offered me cookies for a sequel... Is that a weird tradition or something?

With lots of love,

Skybluebutterfly


End file.
